Pharmacy In Practice Podcast

We were delighted to be joined by Janice Perkins to chat about the current state of UK pharmacy. 

Janice has over 30 years of leadership experience in community pharmacy.  She’s the former Superintendent Pharmacist of Well Pharmacy, responsible for patient safety & well-being, regulatory & professional standards and delivery of the NHS contractual framework and services.

A key part of the role was ensuring colleagues were clear about their developing role within community pharmacy and using every opportunity to instill pride, passion and professionalism throughout the business.

A Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Janice is Chair of the Community Pharmacy Patient Expert Advisory Group, a Visiting Professor in Community Pharmacy at Keele University and until recently was the Chair of the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group.

Janice is a former board member of the Company Chemists’ Association and the PSNC Committee member.

Trevor Gore and I return with an introductory podcast revealing our plans for 2023.

We’ll rattle through the UK pharmacy news, catch up on stories beyond pharmacy and discuss our monthly featured interview.

It will hopefully be a lot of fun.

Patient group directions have traditionally been a ‘stop gap’ option, especially in the era before pharmacist independent prescribing. This debate will explore the future of patient group directions by community pharmacists. Many have lauded patient group directions as an excellent tool to extend the scope of practice of community pharmacists. However, many would say that a tick box technical process serves to continue the de-professionalisation of the pharmacist profession. In the coming years all pharmacists will qualify as independent prescribers but will they be able to make the step away from structured tick box pharmaceutical care or will they embrace uncertainty?

Chief executive of Community Pharmacy Scotland

In addition to his role at Community Pharmacy Scotland Harry is also visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde and a RNID pension fund trustee.

GP pharmacist

Siddiqur is a pharmacist who works in general practice, he is an independent prescriber, PCN clinical lead, Co-Director of the Pharmacist Co-operative and a PDA Union representative.

Travel health pharmacist

Derek Evans is a pharmacist who owns a private travel health consultancy. He has worked in community pharmacy in many specialist roles and senior management positions.

GP pharmacist

Practice pharmacist with experience in community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, primary care and NHS 24.

We were very pleased to catch up with Leyla Hannbeck. Leyla is a pharmacist and CEO of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies.

We chatted about all things community pharmacy and in particular explored Leyla's views on how to make working in community pharmacy a more attractive proposition for pharmacists. 

Going into this series (with an open mind) we have made a few assumptions about the current 'lie of the community pharmacy training land' and it is largely that there is very little investment in community pharmacist development above and beyond mandatory training requirements.

As part of this series, we will talk to a range of key players in pharmacy with an interest in community pharmacist education and training. My co-host for many of the series will be fellow pharmacist Derek Evans.

In this episode, we were very fortunate to be joined by Professor Larry Goodyer.  Larry Goodyer is Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the School of Pharmacy at De Montfort University UK.

We discussed a range of topics. the list below will give you a flavour of the conversation.

About Professor Larry Goodyer

Larry Goodyer is Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the School of Pharmacy at De Montfort University UK. He worked as a clinical pharmacist through much of the 1980s and early 90s and until 2003 was Head of the Pharmacy Practice group at King’s College London.

His principal interest is within the field of travel medicine, in which he is keen to promote the role of pharmacists. He has lectured and taught widely on Travel Medicine to both Health professionals and the public and has been invited to address both national and international conferences on the subject, as well as appearances on television and radio broadcasts. Related research interests include methods for bite avoidance and medical supplies for overseas travel.

More broadly in his capacity as a Professor of Pharmacy Practice, he has been involved in research and teaching on a wide range of issues related to the profession of Pharmacy. These include new roles for pharmacists such as prescribing and medicines management.

About Derek Evens

Derek Evans FRPharmS, FRGS, FFTM RCPS (Glasg), FISTM, Independent Prescriber. Independent Travel Medicine Specialist and Consultant. Adjunct Clinical Professor in Pharmacy Practice. Doctor of World Sciences (h.c. CCU/USA).

Well, it has been a while since we have recorded a podcast on Pharmacy in Practice so when I was recently in touch with friend of PIP Jonathan Underhill I suggested we have a chat.

And it was a fun, interesting and insightful conversation. We recorded the episode first thing on Monday morning after the England football defeat. We had a chat about Gareth Southgate's leadership and what the pharmacist profession can learn from him.

We also talked about how the various sectors of pharmacy have weathered the pandemic and where the profession goes next. Professionalism, competence, shared decision making and the future for pharmacists were also topics we covered.

Jonathan completed his pharmacy degree at Sunderland and has post-graduate qualifications from London and Liverpool Universities as well as the Institute for Learning and Development. He began his career as a hospital pharmacist in London before joining the National Prescribing Centre (NPC) in 1996. Working on MeReC publications and then developing an educational network/eLearning platform for evidence-based therapeutics and Information Mastery gave him a passion for understanding how clinicians keep up to date and help people make informed choices about their medicines. Now as a consultant clinical adviser for NICE, he inputs into those Clinical Guidelines that have a large medicines component, oversees outputs from the NICE Medicines team such as evidence summaries on new medicines and Antimicrobial Prescribing Guidelines as well as providing NHS access to the BNF. He also has an honorary post at the Keele School of Pharmacy teaching under and post-graduates as well as pursuing his research interests in Evidence-Informed Decision Making. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists and a qualified COVID-19 vaccinator. This gives him less time than he would like to devote to the passions in his life such as mindful walks in the Cheshire countryside with his soulmate Wor Bobby the Border Terrier, captaining his village cricket team, singing in his decidedly ordinary style with some incredibly talented rock musicians and his long-standing and largely unrewarded devotion to NUFC.

Ian Strachan is a community pharmacy owner contractor. He owns a number of pharmacies in England. He was the Chair of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) between 2014 to 2018.

I have wanted to chat with Ian for a while now. He really has operated at the top of UK pharmacy politics for quite some time and has led the way with many innovative initiatives through his community pharmacies.

We had a wide-ranging and fascinating conversation about many aspects of community pharmacy.

Community pharmacy politics in England is a complicated and often turbulent arena. This came out in the chat but we offset these challenges with some positivity as we looked to the future. A fulfilling and attractive career pathway for pharmacists working in community pharmacy was important to both of us.

Ian is passionate about the profession and in particular, he cares deeply about the professionalisation of community pharmacy. We discussed what he thought the vision for the future of community pharmacy should be in the coming years and delved into some notable long-standing community pharmacy topics like free deliveries for example.

Ian is as enthusiastic an advocate for community pharmacy that I have spoken to for a while so it was fascinating to get his insight.

Graham Parsons is the Chief Pharmacist at Turning Point. He is a pharmacist with a wide range of experience in many aspects of pharmacy.

As a specialist in Substance Misuse he has worked at both local, regional and national level (through the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, National Institute of Health and Care Excellence and Turning Point) to deliver a wide range of initiatives and policies which have impacted on both substance misuse services and the lives of individuals affected by substance use disorders. This has included over six years as a prescriber within the Plymouth Specialist Addiction Service. During this time he has also developed an interest in Mental Health and Pain and the management of these conditions in this cohort of patients.

He has also delivered a number of training sessions covering a diverse range of topics from substance misuse to Controlled Drug legislation for a number of institutes including the University of Bath and the Royal College of General Practitioners and developed Post Graduate addiction courses for Medway University. I am an experienced public speaker who has presented at many events including the College of Mental Health Pharmacy International Conference and on local BBC radio. In the written media I have produced a number of articles on substance misuse and its treatment for the Pharmaceutical Journal.

We had a wide-ranging discussion about the issues of the day in the area of substance misuse.

I have never met a pharmacist or pharmacy technician that does not dread the letter of complaint from the GPhC dropping through the letterbox.

Unfortunately in the context of overall rising numbers of complaints being made by fellow health professionals and also by the general public, I felt it important to touch base with our colleagues at Hempsons to get their views on what you can do if you find yourself in this terrible situation.

In a very interesting chat, we covered the fitness to practise process and how to navigate it if you need to. We also discussed some of the reasons behind rising numbers of GPhC complaints and also the variation in where complaints come from between different professions. There were some key pieces of advice so hopefully, you find these useful.

Tania Francis

Tania Francis is a solicitor and partner at Hempsons. Tania advises doctors, dentists and other healthcare professionals with all sorts of issues to do with registration and regulatory issues, specialist registration or specialist lists, litigation, associate disputes, CQC registration, difficulties with NHS England and more. Tania is a qualified doctor and works in a team which also includes a qualified dentist, and they, therefore, offer a unique approach to our clients’ problems. The team regularly contributes to Independent Practitioner Today and Dentistry magazine and offers training and seminars to our clients. Tania is also on the council of the Medico-Legal Society.

Thorrun Govind

Thorrun is a trainee solicitor at Hempsons. Thorrun studied Pharmacy at King’s College London, completing her pharmacy pre-registration training in community pharmacy. As a practising community pharmacist, she has been a strong advocate for healthcare and healthcare professionals across traditional and social media. Thorrun studied for her Graduate Diploma in Law, full time whilst working as a pharmacist. She subsequently studied for her Legal Practice course and MSc in Law, Business and Management, attaining a Distinction. As a qualified healthcare professional, she has first-hand experience of operating in a challenging environment whilst striving to provide excellent care to patients.

“This podcast is made available on the basis that no liability is accepted for any errors of fact or opinion it may contain. The content should not be regarded as a comprehensive statement of the law and practise in this area.  Professional advice should be obtained before applying the information to particular circumstances.”

I was very proud and grateful to get the chance to talk to the Chief Executive Officer of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) Duncan Rudkin.

Duncan was very generous with his time and we discussed a wide range of topics. Time was limited so we didn't get through all the topics I wanted to but we did cover lots of ground. We ran out of time and there are questions we did not get round to. Duncan has very kindly agreed toa answer these in writing so stay tuned.

Areas explored include the following:

We recently had the pleasure of chatting to the founder and owner of Instant Dentist Aalok Shukla. Instant dentist is an innovative collaborative business that will help community pharmacies extend their digital impact but also deliver much earlier preventative dental care to people as they visit.

Aalok commented:

"Through easy and affordable access to private dental care, Instant Dentist is the first dental wellness platform that allows you to manage your dental health in a way you’ve never thought was possible. Prevention and diagnosis from an experienced digital dentist is just a click away."

We hope this podcast might give pharmacy owners across the country inspiration to extend into digital dental services if they have not already done so.

Darshan Negandhi is a Primary Care Network (PCN) clinical pharmacist. Previously he was Director and Superintendent Pharmacist at Lewisham Pharmacy in London.

He has recently made the move to work within the PCN and is thoroughly enjoying it. We had a great chat about all things pharmacy. Darshan is very modest but has a fantastic ambition to become a pharmacist partner ina GP practice. With his talent, vision and enthusiasm I fully expect him to achieve this.

Thoroughly enjoyed this chat.

Jonathan Burton is Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Scottish Pharmacy Board and he has been on the frontline in community pharmacy throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

We caught up to have a chat about the myriad of unprecedented things that pharmacists and their teams have had to cope with over the last few months. Changes in legislation, delays in registration of pre-registration pharmacists, opportunism by certain organisations and the performance of the RPS during the crisis.

Below are some of the questions we put to Jonathan. We hope you enjoy the podcast to hear how he responded.

Where do we go next in pharmacy?

From a general perspective how do think the government in Scotland has performed in response to the pandemic?

Has the national question in Scotland and the way decisions are taken favoured the profession?

How has the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) performed during the crisis?

How do you think RPS members feel about the decision to make resources free to the whole profession at the point when the RPS value proposition is arguably most potent?

Have you got any concerns about some of the decisions made by any organisation during the pandemic?

How can RPS support provisionally registered pharmacists?

Do you think there will be increased responsibility on pre-reg tutors during this provisional registration process?

Do you think there is a chance that the issue of vicarious liability could become an issue for pre-reg tutors especially if a provisionally registered student that they are supervising fail the registration exam?

Do you feel that pharmacists have adequate development opportunities over the years and if not why has investment been lacking?

If we encourage remote consultation services like NHS Near Me in community pharmacy why will people need to go to a community pharmacy?

Can you tell us about your early experiences of using NHS Near Me?

Who do you think the next Chief Pharmaceutical Officer of Scotland will be?

Dr Emily Kennedy has worked as a prescribing support pharmacist in primary care in NHS Dumfries and Galloway for 16 years and now supervises 17 pharmacists working across general practice. Her varied and very successful career so far has involved education, research and work in community pharmacy.

I was interested to discuss various aspects to her current and previous roles. In particular, I was interested to hear more about Emily's current role and how she has seen things change in pharmacy over the years.

We discussed the current state of play in primary care pharmacy in Scotland and touched on education, training, supervision, competence and also the need for pharmacists to have confidence in their own ability.

Scottish pharmacy has evolved dramatically over recent years and Emily has really been part of that evolution. We discussed how pharmacists' expectations have changed and how her work now involves

During the COVID-19 crisis, Emily has been involved with her local COVID-19 hub in Dumfries and Galloway. I was interested to hear her insights around being involved here.

Stephen Hughes MBA, MSc, MPharm, is a consultant antimicrobial pharmacist at Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust. 

We were lucky enough to catch up with him on the podcast to discuss how he and his team have adapted to working life during the pandemic. We also discussed antimicrobial pharmacy at length. A fascinating conversation.

In your view what is the importance of patient-reported outcomes in antibiotic use?

How do we innovate before we have to in the antibiotic space?

Are we too reliant on the pharmaceutical industry to keep coming up with new antibiotics and how sustainable is this cycle?

Do we make the best use of new antibiotics?

How should the UK government intervene to ensure a robust pipeline of new antibiotics remains into the future?

Are we collectively being too complacent in the prescribing practise that we tolerate with antibiotics?

What have you and your team had to unlearn during COVID-19?

Are you concerned about a surge of secondary bacterial infection in people who have suffered COVID-19?

How have your team coped with the COVID-19 situation?

In our latest podcast, we sat down with Chief Pharmacist Yousaf Ahmad. Amongst other roles, Yousaf is currently Chief Pharmacist at Care UK and was also recently appointed to the GPhC Council. We had a wide-ranging chat about how Yousaf has coped with COVID-19 in his current role.

How has your life as a pharmacist changed as a result of COVID-19?

Has our over-reliance on the NHS been to our detriment during COVID-19?

How has community pharmacy coped during the COVID-19 crisis?

What is the most significant legislative change you have noticed during the COVID-19 crisis?

Who hasn't wasted the COVID-19 crisis?

How has your leadership changed in light of COVID-19?

What does the future hold for you?

I dropped Professor Zubin Austin an email out of the blue inviting him on to join me on the PIP podcast to discuss a number of aspects of pharmacy. I was delighted to hear the 'ping' of his positive reply landing in my inbox.

We got together and had a chat about what it means to be a pharmacist and explored what many in our profession believe to be an existential crisis of pharmacist identity.

Professor Austin is very interested in all aspects of how pharmacists perceive themselves and how they behave in practice. 

We discussed some of the following topics:

I have to say that this was one of the most insightful and interesting conversations I have had in recent years. Zubin and his colleagues in Toronto are involved in extremely important work. As pharmacists, we are grappling what we are for and Professor Austin and his team are helping us to understand where we go next.

Professor Zubin Austin

Professor Austin's research interests focus on the personal and professional development of the health human resources workforce. As the complexity and interdependency of care provision has advanced, the importance of investing in the continuous professional development of health professionals increases. Professor Auston's research recognises that artificial divisions between “personal” and “professional” development are counterproductive to the goal of enhanced quality care. Failure to recognise these important development needs in the workforce leads to burnout, disengagement, and ultimately error. A particular focus of his research involves internationally educated health professionals, a large and growing component of the Canadian workforce who have particular needs for professional and personal development.

Gary Paragpuri is the former editor of the Chemist and Druggist magazine. He is now CEO of the specialist consultancy firm called Hub and Spoke Innovations.

Hub and Spoke Innovations aims to help pharmacists and dispensing GPs grow their businesses and provide a better service for their patients through technology.

Their flagship product is the Pharmaself24, which is a vending machine for prescription medications. This product allows people to collect prescriptions from a community pharmacy at any time of day or night.

Tune in to the PIPcast below to find out how Gary is driving change in UK community pharmacy using this technology. We talked about the role of automation in community pharmacy and the seismic shifts in this regard but we also had a fascinating chat about Gary's time as editor of C&D magazine. We talked about how the internet has revolutionalised publishing in the online and offline world.

Greg Lawton is a pharmacist specialising in patient and medicines safety, staffing, data protection, privacy and healthcare policy.

We were lucky to catch up with Greg to have an in-depth conversation about dispensing errors in pharmacy.

There a few things that strike fear into hearts of pharmacists more than making a dispensing error. Making a dispensing error is still a criminal offence and can still lead to a custodial sentence. Unfortunately, we live in the real world and these errors do on occasion happen.

Are there too many errors?

Are all near misses and dispensing errors reported and are they analysed appropriately?

Should pharmacists face potential custodial sentences?

Do we share insights nationally well enough?

The issue is still on-going but it is my hope that we re-ignite the conversation around this topic.

Gavin Birchall is a pharmacist, designer and marketer who has created, led and marketed businesses at senior level and carried out the first research into the brand of pharmacy on the planet. Having spent 15 years in community pharmacy, practising in both independent and multiple owned pharmacies, Gavin has worked in academia, primary care and representation.

He was instrumental in setting up a 21 strong community pharmacy group where he was Operations and Marketing Director and Superintendent Pharmacist.

Frustrated by the lack of recognition received by pharmacy, Gavin completed research into the brand of pharmacy as part of a Masters In Graphic Design and in 2015 set up a pharmacy specialist design and marketing agency, DOSE Design and Marketing Ltd, to support pharmacies to present and promote themselves more effectively. Gavin and his associates now support a range of clients in community pharmacy and beyond.

On the podcast, we had a wide-ranging conversation about pharmacy now and into the future. I asked Gavin the following questions:

Dr Ollie Hart is a GP partner, Primary Care Network (PCN) Clinical Director and also owns Peak Health Coaching. Ollie Practises in Sheffield and I met him recently for the first time at a meeting in London. We got talking and went for a coffee after the meeting. Unfortunately, we ran out of time as I had to catch a flight but we agreed to chat again soon. He didn't bargain that said chat would be on the PIP podcast but here we are.

Ollie describes himself as a 'typical GP who spins a few plates'. He is a PCN Clinical Director in Sheffield, has experience of commissioning for the NHS, still practises as a GP and also finds time to run his own health coaching company called Peak Health Coaching.

Ollie talks passionately about chronic pain and his desire to inform and coach these people. "The more people are engaged with their own health the better their outcomes will be. People have so much thrown at them in life so how we deal with adversity is crucial. I've been very involved with patient activation and care planning as part of my commissioning role in Sheffield.

"Good skills are missing to help people take much more of a partnership. It's not easy. This is how Peak Health Coaching evolved.  Dr Tim Williams and I founded the business then and we have had good success so far."

The conversation flowed from here. Below are some questions I asked Ollie. Tune in to the podcast to hear his fascinating approach to coaching.

Do you think your interest in chronic pain was the trigger to start a business?

Do you think pharmacists and GP's over-prescribe medication in the chronic pain space?

What does a typical interaction look like?

Is this a move away from the paternalistic model of healthcare?

PCNs are the promised land. What do you think PCNs are a reinvention of?

What does the role of PCN Clinical Director actually involve?

One of the consequences of the development of PCNs has been a rush for pharmacists to work in general practice. Are pharmacists welcome guests in general practice or is it their home?

What are your thoughts on the workforce pressures that the inception of PCNs has driven?

What's next for you?

What is your advice for pharmacists or doctors joining the register?

Dolly Sud is a Specialist Mental Health Pharmacist and PhD student. She is also a member of Cochrane and College of Mental Health Pharmacy.

We caught up with Dolly on the PIPcast. Dolly gave us a fascinating insight into her role as a Specialist Mental Health Pharmacist and also her views on some of the wider issues in pharmacy.

Emma Davies recently took over as host of the PIP podcast and was kind enough to interview editor Johnathan Laird. It was a really interesting conversation and below are a handful of the questions Emma asked.

Why did you do pharmacy?

What are the selling points of pharmacy?

Do pharmacists work autonomously?

Are community pharmacists ready for the general practice pharmacy role?

How important is credentialing in pharmacy?

How much information should be given to members of pharmacy support organisations?

What motivated you to start Pharmacy in Practice?

Do you see enough leadership in pharmacy at the moment?

What was your experience on the RPS Board like?

Is bullying still a problem in pharmacy?

What does leadership mean to you?

Graham Thoms has recently taken on the role of CEO at PharmaDoctor. He has had a very interesting career in the pharmaceutical industry and was a pioneer of pharmacy-led flu vaccination services.

Our conversation covered Graham's career to date but we also spoke about his work these days at PharmaDoctor. Graham is a great advocate for community pharmacy and particularly the delivery of private services through community pharmacy. One of the topics I was particularly interested in was his view on how community pharmacy will likely develop over the coming years.

Other questions I asked included the following:

Robert Liddington was kind enough to join us on the podcast to talk about his extremely interesting career so far. Robert spent almost 18 years in the army as a pharmacist and more recently has taken roles in the MHRA and also the Care Quality Commission.

He took us through his experience in the army and he shared his insights about how pharmacists can have a very interesting and fulfilling career in the army or the army reserve.

I was recently invited to chat about pharmacist prescribing by an Australian colleague called Tyson Clarke. Tyson is CEO of retail training software company called Voista Pty Ltd. and has an interest in pharmacy in Australia.

The context of our chat is the on-going animosity between pharmacists and GPs in Australia. Tyson interviewed me to find out more about how pharmacist independent prescribing has evolved over the years in Scotland. Australia are on a similar journey towards the inception of pharmacist independent prescribing but the proposals have been met with at times fierce resistance in some quarters.

As ever I hope we brought some moderation to the debate.

The SIGN/BTS asthma guideline was recently updated. This update will have an impact on how many healthcare professionals care for people with asthma across the UK. We were fortunate to have the two co-chairs, Dr James Paton and Dr John White, on the podcast to talk us through the key updates in the guideline and some of the messages that they feel are important to communicate with pharmacists.

Professor Claire Anderson Chair of the English Pharmacy Board was kind enough to join us on the podcast to talk about her exciting new role in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and also some interesting topics of the day. Below are some of the areas we covered.

Jonathan Burton has worked in community pharmacy all his professional life. He founded and remains co-owner of The Right Medicine Pharmacy in Scotland. He has championed community pharmacy over the years and has applied his independent pharmacist prescribing qualification specifically in community pharmacy.

He has been a Royal Pharmaceutical Society board member in Scotland for the last number of years. Last year, after a break he returned to the Scottish Board and was this year elected Chair of the Scottish Pharmacy Board.

We were really delighted that he agreed to take some time out and chat with us on the podcast about all things pharmacy and particularly what his plans are as Chair of the Scottish Board.

Andrew Evans is the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Wales. At Pharmacy in Practice, we were extremely proud to welcome Andrew on to the podcast to talk about all things pharmacy.

We have outlined the questions we asked Andrew below. We really enjoyed the conversation and enjoyed hearing all about some of the exciting developments happening in Wales at the moment.

How does one achieve the role of Chief Pharmaceutical Officer and what aspect of your role do you really enjoy?

What is your view on the political 'shenanigans' in pharmacy?

What exciting pharmacy projects are happening in Wales at the moment?

There has been a significant shift of pharmacists working in general practice. What steps have you taken to ensure pharmacists moving into new roles in general practice are adequately supported?

It is my assertion that some leaders in decision making roles have never actually done the emerging general practice roles. How do you mitigate this risk?

How important are primary care consultant pharmacist roles to the plans for the development of pharmacists in Wales?

How important is pharmaceutical care in modern pharmacy practice?

What is the minimum locum rate you would work for?

Do test and treat sore throat services encourage unnecessary clinical testing of people?

How far are we along the journey to the decriminalisation of inadvertent dispensing errors?

Do you recognise bullying as a problem in pharmacy?

What is your advice for newly qualified pharmacists coming through?

Pharmacist Jonathan Underhill is a Medicines Clinical Adviser at the NICE Medicines and Prescribing Programme. He is also currently Medicines Optimisation Lead at Keele University and a member of the scientific committee for the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists. 

He was good enough to take some time out to talk all things pharmacy. Jonathan is particularly interested in evidence-based medicine and also on education. We explored his career to date and his views on some topical issues. We chatted about leadership in pharmacy and also the importance of rewarding high performing pharmacists. 

If you are interested in understanding the thoughts of one of the leading pharmacists in the UK highly recommend listening to this podcast. 

We will be featuring some of Jonathan's work over the coming weeks on Pharmacy in Practice so stay tuned.

This week in Nottingham the British Pharmaceutical Students' Association are holding their annual conference. The theme this year is global pharmacy.

Tonight we were joined by Andrew Moy (Northern Area Co-ordinator), Rhys Llewellyn (Western Area Co-ordinator) and Kweku Bimpong (Publications Officer). to give us an update on day one of the conference. We will be podcasting from the conference throughout the week.

About the annual conference 2019

The Annual Conference is the flagship event of the BPSA and is hosted at a different School of Pharmacy every year. There are always a host of interesting speakers from all different areas of the profession, giving you the opportunity to hear about career paths that you may not have considered before. Moreover, the conference is a great place to meet like-minded passionate students, all keen to make a difference to the profession.

Global Pharmacy

The theme of the Annual Conference this year is Global Pharmacy. Millions of lives are lost to preventable diseases. Pharmacists are the medicines experts and are well-equipped to achieve Global Goal 3 from WHO - “Good health and well-being”. During the Annual Conference, you will learn about the roles of pharmacists worldwide, how pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry can improve the health of the underserved populations, develop knowledge about global health issues and reflect on the roles of pharmacists in improving global health.

There is little doubt that the profession of pharmacy in Scotland is thriving. We were extremely proud to share some time catching up with Rose-Marie Parr, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Scotland. 

We had a great conversation about progress towards the ambition of 'Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical care'. We discussed the myriad of opportunities emerging for pharmacists in Scotland but also addressed some of the challenges and concerns.

It was a very positive and most enjoyable chat. It was all the better for completely avoiding any talk of Brexit.

Emma Davies joined me on the podcast this week. We talked in depth about bullying in pharmacy, leadership and tried to avoid talking about Brexit.

Emma is an advanced Pharmacist Practitioner and has worked in pain management for around 12 years. She developed her interest in supported self-management whilst working in the Southampton Pain Service. Currently working in South Wales, Emma provides pain management clinics in primary care, working with GPs, pharmacists and the primary care teams. Emma also teaches at an undergraduate and postgraduate level, develops guidelines and educational materials and provides advice to the Welsh Government on pain management. Emma is currently studying for a PhD, examining trends in opioid prescribing and healthcare resource utilisation in Wales. In addition, she was recently appointed Chair of the Primary Care Pharmacy Association Pain Group. Emma is also on the Executive Committee of the Chronic Pain Policy Coalition – an all-party group which lobbies Westminster to improve the lives of people living with pain. 

FAPhA. Dr. Lawrence “LB” Brown is Associate Dean of Student and Academic Affairs and a Full Professor in the school of pharmacy, where he will be responsible for admissions, curriculum, and progression of students.

Prior to joining the School of Pharmacy’s Administrative team, he was an Associate Professor of Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy in Memphis. There he served in various roles, including Vice-Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chair of the Health Outcomes and Policy Research Division, Director of Graduate Studies in Health Outcomes and Policy Research, and Director of the UT Center for Medication Therapy Management Center. He also served as the UT Health Science Center Faculty Senate President. He earned his PharmD degree at the University of the Pacific in 1999, and his PhD in Social and Administrative Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota in 2003.

He is a fellow, a former trustee, and former Speaker of the House of the American Pharmacists Association. He is currently elected to serve as President of the American Pharmacists Association in 2015. Dr Brown was selected the Pharmacy Student of the Year in 1999, by the California Pharmacists Association, a “Men of Excellence” awardee in 2010, by the Tri-State Defender, and a “Medallion of the Association” awardee in 2001, by the Hungarian Private Pharmacists Association.

Dr Brown’s career in pharmacy began as a U.S. Air Force pharmacy technician in 1985. After the Air Force, he worked in the Pharmacy Operations department as a pharmacy computer systems trainer and help desk tech for Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Since becoming a pharmacist, he has dedicated his career to the expansion of pharmacists’ roles within the health care system that improve patient health, and the improvement of patient’s perception of pharmacists. Dr Brown is an International Expert in the area of Medication Therapy Management (MTM). In addition to his work promoting the value of pharmacists provided MTM services throughout the United States, he has travelled to South Africa, the Philippines, Sweden, and Hungary to help pharmacists in those countries become better prepared to provide MTM services to their citizens. He has given over 30 invited presentations internationally and over 70 throughout the United States.

He was kind enough to take some time out to speak to us about his excellent career achievements and also a little about pharmacy in America. He is due to speak at the Pharmacist Defence Association conference on March 31st and good enough to give us a preview of his presentation.

Dr Cathrine Edgeworth is a consultant  clinical pharmacist with over 25 years NHS experience. She now runs her own aesthetics business. She is also heavily involved in the charity that supports chronic regional pain syndrome (CRPS).

We talked about the merits of being a consultant pharmacist and all things aesthetics.

We were extremely lucky to be joined by Mark Pitt the Director of Defence Services, PDA union. Mark spent 20 years working in community pharmacy progressing through various store/area management roles to a senior head office position for one of the pharmacy multiples. Mark joined the PDA union shortly after it was formed and also sits as a lay member for the Employment Tribunal Service.

We talked about what exactly the purpose of a union like the PDA union and then went on to discuss the relevant topics of the day, not least the current Boots ballot.

I had the pleasure of chatting to Superintendent pharmacist Philip Galt. Philip is managing Director of Lindsay and Gilmour community pharmacy chain and is also heavily involved in supporting the wider profession on a number of fronts. 

We chatted about the opportunities and challenges for Scottish community pharmacy. We also discussed the now stark difference between community pharmacy in England and Scotland. We failed miserably to avoid talking about clinical pharmacists and Brexit.

If you are interested to understand some of the positive developments in Scottish community pharmacy then this podcast is certainly for you.

I took a trip to Robert Gordon University School of Pharmacy in Aberdeen earlier this week to chat to Trudi Mcintosh about the brand new community pharmacy independent prescribing course starting this January. Exciting times for community pharmacy in Scotland

 Josh Miller is a pre-registration pharmacist completing his training in Scotland. He was kind enough to have a blether about all things pharmacy. We covered life as a pre-reg, the new five-year university course and the views that Josh and his peers have about the profession. Always fun to catch up with Josh.

In a staggering act of bravery, pharmacy manager Amanda Smith and dispenser Denise Briscoe remained in the pharmacy which allowed staff members to flee the scene making sure no-one got hurt. They also waited with the attacker while he stole a small amount of cash and also some prescription drugs. 

Pharmacy manager Amanda Smith joined us on the podcast to tell us more about it. 

 A new report commissioned by Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) demonstrates the popularity of the Minor Ailment Service (MAS) among patients, with close to 90% of participants rating the overall service 10 out of 10 for satisfaction and the overwhelming majority rating their experience of consultations as ‘Excellent’.

William Johnson is a community pharmacist locum working in Scotland. He was kind enough to take some time out to chat to us about the issues facing locum community pharmacists in Scotland.